It’s essential that we always do our very best. If there ever is a question about quality, go back, stay at it until the question is removed.

In his book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz teaches us: “Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don’t Take Anything Personally, Don’t Make Assumptions and lastly, Always Do Your Best.” He says this last one is about the action of the first three.

Ruiz writes, “If you do your best always, over and over again, you will become a master of transformation. Practice makes the master. By doing your best you become a master. Everything you have ever learned, you learned through repetition. You learned to write, to drive, and even to walk by repetition. You are a master of speaking your language because you practiced. Action is what makes the difference.”

I love this because it is simple, and from my experience, so very true. Whatever we are practicing, and the quality and ritual of that practice, we are becoming. And when we do our best at whatever we are practicing, we have the opportunity of becoming a master of our work, our lives and, ultimately, ourselves. It isn’t about perfection. Nor is it about letting ourselves off the hook. It’s about showing up, every day, and every single time out.

This week, play a game with me, when you are doing whatever you’re doing, ask yourself this question: “Is this my best?” If the answer is “yes,” splendid. If the answer to yourself happens to be “no,” then go back and just do your best, as Ruiz says, “no more and no less.”